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By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Petaluma community will have input in the selection process of the next police chief.
Lt. Danny Fish has been serving as interim chief for three years, saving the city about $600,000 in salary and benefits during that time, City Manager John Brown said.
Danny Fish, left, and Dave Sears.
When Fish was appointed in April 2009 to replace Steve Hood, who retired to work with a military counter-terrorism unit, he was expected to fill in for about a year before a permanent replacement was hired.
In the meantime, the city’s budget tanked along with the overall economy and the annual savings remained attractive as the city slogged through the recession.
“But it’s certainly high time to get the question answered,” Brown said.
Fish led the department through the tightest budgets in memory, cutting supplies, keeping positions vacant, reassigning specialty units and making do with aging equipment.
In an effort to save about $35,000 from last year’s budget, Fish recommended the elimination of the captain’s position held by Dave Sears, Fish’s second-in-command and his only competition in 2009 for the temporary chief’s position. The City Council approved the request and Sears dropped back to a lieutenant’s slot, with a lower salary.
The move sparked a groundswell of support for Sears and resurrected gossip about Fish’s personal life.
Questions about Fish’s personal life have surfaced intermittently over the years, mostly as anonymous online postings. They center on a 2009 affair Fish acknowledges he had with a police department employee while married to his ex-wife. He later married the woman, who no longer works in the police department.
Although the hiring of the chief is solely the city manager’s decision, Brown said a more extensive and open selection process was warranted this time for the position, which pays between $150,000 and $180,000 annually.
“We’re hoping an open and objective process is the best way to resolve the questions the best we can,” Brown said.
Both Fish and Sears said they will apply for the chief’s job — and both maintain they have an advantage over the other. Brown said he hopes by July to have a new chief to lead a department of 62 sworn officers and about 30 support staffers.
A national recruiting firm will be hired to conduct the first screenings, Brown said, and possibly the first interviews. The top candidates will go through interviews with Brown, community peers and a “limited public review.”
The exact nature of the public review hasn’t been determined, nor has the basic qualifying criteria. The search will include in-house and external candidates.
“We owe it to all sides to get the best chief available,” Brown said.
He acknowledged that Fish’s long tenure as interim chief may give the perception that he has an advantage.
“But I don’t think he does,” he said. “I would hope that this process would take that out of the mix.”
Fish, who has sole custody of his teenage daughter but is still involved in legal disputes with his ex-wife, declined to discuss the issue in detail, saying his personal life is irrelevant.
Others have privately complained that the issue is one of ethics.
Brown said he was contacted in 2009 by someone complaining about Fish’s relationship with a department employee. He then interviewed Fish and others involved.
Fish said he informed Brown of the relationship in accordance with city policy.
Brown said he couldn’t speak specifically about the allegations because it was a personnel matter, but said he found no proof that Fish was dishonest about the relationship.
Fish will be vetted as will any candidate, Brown said.
Fish, 45, welcomed a public review, saying his 23 years with the department and especially the past three years will show he’s the best choice.
“An independent body will give validity to the process. And it should in the end, especially if I’m selected, put all that to rest,” he said. “It’d be silly to say I don’t have an advantage. I hope my performance for the last three years will speak for itself.”
Sears, 46, also endorsed the broader recruitment process: “It’s good to give a lot of diverse groups access to the process; it adds a bit of ownership. I’m always interested in a fair and impartial process.”
Sears came to Petaluma as a lieutenant in 1999 and served as captain for seven years before that job was eliminated last year and he returned to his previous rank.
“It will be an opportunity for the community to give their input on what they want, since we actually work for them,” he said. “And it’s an opportunity for me to demonstrate my education, my professional experience and my community involvement, which I think gives me a leg up.”
You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.
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By the way, WHERE and WHEN CAN I PARTICIPATE ? Hiding somewhere Or am I ignorant? Please advise.
Anybody but Danny Fish.
I too am thoroughly appalled that we would consider a Police Chief who clearly thinks his personal,immoral ethics, have no relevance on his job performance. First you are dating a subordinate, while you are married and your wife is going through chemo therapy?? Secondly, only once you had been caught you bring it to the attention of the City Manager and he seems to brush it under the carpet. Then you then get her a job with the Fire Department??? Then marry her and call it all good???? Clearly all of the above speak to the kind of man you are and definitely not someone who should be in a top position in our city! I don’t know if Sears is the man but “Fish” definitely isn’t. And really you cut everything back to save the city money….. did you cut yourself back at all??? Yea didn’t think so, much easier to do necessary things when then don’t impact you! Doesn’t really qualify in my book as a true leader if you are not taking a hit yourself. Get over your arrogant self and remember “Karma is one mean Bitch”
Uhhh…. Graeme…. what your’re suggesting is that Petaluma hire exclusively from within the ranks. Having personally worked there… (alongside Danny Fish incidentally) I gotta say that is a wretched idea. The likelihood of finding that diamond in the rough is ridiculously remote. You’re not going to find anyone whatsoever with any new ideas… just more of the same.
I appreciate the creativity… truly… but this dog just aint gonna hunt.
I’m going to re-post my solution to this… let the Captains and Lieutenants rotate through the Chief’s position and let’s see how they perform? Decide who to promote to grand poobah based on actual performance.
The headhunters are going to send you cookie cutter candidates with the same experience and BS training classes or the ubiquitous “FBI Academy” diploma.
Save some money and rotate some people through the top job and see how they compete in the real world. Even the less capable will get an idea of what the job is and what’s needed to do it right.
A month in the job 24/7 for each “leader” is going to tell you more than any job interview or bogus performance examination.
A shocking proposal to be sure because it’s never been done anywhere. But if you keep doing the same things over and over and expecting different results – isn’t that insanity?
If the Captains and Lieutenants all fail miserably – then start rotating the Sergeants through the top spot. You will find a proper leader this way and things can and will change. The Top Cop can make all the difference in the world.
Unfortunately the Top Cop is almost always the person making a difference for the worst and you get a “Mutiny on the Bounty” situation where the Chief just sees the veneer wherever he goes and wherever he speaks. Circle of compliance Chiefs are everywhere. And they don’t even realize no one stole the strawberries.
Hire a different type and you’ve got a shot. Putting in another POG just like the last one guarantees failure.
The Petaluma Polioe Department needs somebody completely new in charge to clean house. The PPD is notorius for enforcing laws as they desire. They write traffic tickets where there is no infraction. They never monitor traffic trouble spots. They much rather cruise around and pull over anybody with dark skin or sit on Lakeville with their radar guns firing away.
Someone that takes their oath literally and seriously.
There will come a time soon when people in uniform will have to decide if they really stand with the People.
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/03/oath-keepers-declaration-of-orders-we.html
The new police chief MUST tow the line for the Petaluma Police to be like Nazis.
They just had a ‘funded’ crackdown on pedestrians ! Never mind the gang-bangers, bust the jaywalkers with State and Federal funds !
Petaluma is like a Police State, where the normally law-abiding citizens are targeted for infractions, while the real criminals don’t worry, as the Petaluma Police are watching for cell phone while driving violations.
Welcome to the Judicial Industrial Complex.
I have read the mentioned article and I formed the opinion that Mr. Fish is not a man of Honor or Integrity. As mentioned by him, his personal life is not a factor in the race for Chief to me is the craziest statement a peson in his perdicament could say. Living an unsullied lifestyle is part of an Oath that we all swore to. So in my mind having an affair with another Police Officer within his ranks while under the oath of Marriage is living sullied. I’m just calling how I see it. And those of you who read this comment will most likely agree. It comes to a point if everyones life that we fall however deep or shallow, we all fall. Well Mr. Fish has fallen and only HE, his Officers and community knows the depth of fall. I wish you all the luck to Mr. Fish, but I have to admit although coming from an outsider that Mr. Sears is obviously the MAN for the job and it will come to light soon. I wish you well Mr. Sears in your upcoming endeavors as Chief of Police!!!
Yours Truly
Former PPD Officer.
All of these personnel issues indicate that someone with a fresh pair of eyes needs to be in charge of this department!
Sears. Sears. Sears.